"News on the Day I Was Born"

07/07/2002
"News on the Day I Was Born"

Ted's Neckbrace

My mother saved the local newspaper from the day I was born, July 22, 1969. It's been sitting in an old cardboard box in her basement since then, gathering dust and only pulled out every five years or so when she does her pentennial basement cleaning. Last year, for my 32nd birthday, she finally just gave it to me.

What a news day. Neil Armstrong had just walked on the Moon two days earlier and the astronauts were headed home when I made my debut. This much I knew. But I didn't realize that Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick fiasco had occurred over the same weekend and was making the front page, too.

What was Chappaquiddick? Senator Ted Kennedy, the same one who is still a Senator from Massachussetts, was driving home with a young aide named Mary Jo Kopechne. He was drunk, ran the car off of Chappaquiddick Road in Martha's Vineyard and into Poucha Pond. The car sank, Ted escaped and Mary Jo drowned.

In 1969, Ted Kennedy was seen as a Presidential hopeful. After the assassinations of his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Senatorial candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Ted was seen as the heir to the Kennedy legacy. This scandal completely destroyed his national appeal.

I framed the newspaper's front page and have it hanging on my office wall. What happened on your birthday?

Replies: 2 comments

Cripes. As far as month and days go, my birthday is the same date as Joan of Arc getting burned at the stake. I'm not quite sure what I think of that!

Posted by anon
Monday, July 8, 2002 at 10:49 AM EST

Another bit of trivia: On your 3rd birthday in 1972, the old USSR landed Venera 8 on Venus, the second spacecraft to land on our closest neighbor.

Posted by Phil
Wednesday, July 10, 2002 at 03:44 PM EST